brewery

Rock Star musician Dan Regan and Rock Star brewer Eric McLaughlin have teamed up for one of Long Beach’s most anticipated new watering holes, Liberation Brewing Company, opening on Atlantic Ave. in California Heights. You may have had a chance to meet this duo at the first annual Craft Beer LB Festival last September where they were pouring the “Some Day IPA,” their collaboration beer with Ten Mile. I, myself, recently sat down with them to chat about their brewery’s development.

“Everyone has their plan to build a brewery, or start a band, or become a DJ,” Dan said about starting this project. “You quickly learn how serious someone is when you say ‘let’s do it’.” When he met with the man who would become his business partner, and who was looking for a new venture, Dan was given the opportunity to show how serious he was about opening a brewery. He responded by handing over a carefully put together book of plans, which he had begun soon after retiring from Reel Big Fish, and the partnership was formed. After a few more years of paperwork and planning, Dan received the building’s keys during the summer of 2016 and construction began.

At the plans’ very earliest stages Dan knew he wanted no one else as his Head Brewer, having always been impressed by Eric’s “challenge accepted” attitude and “zen-like” working style. The two met through mutual friends nearly ten years ago and quickly realized their shared interest in beginning to home brew. “It was swiftly apparent that he was much better at it than I was,” Dan said about Eric’s first few batches. When Eric left his office job to begin working for Ohana Brewing in Alhambra, his work ethic earned him his way up the ladder to Assistant Brewer. His brewing skills quickly progressed to earn him his “award winning brewer” status while with Ohana, the official Head Brewer position for Liberation, and the opportunity to help Dan build his brewery from the ground up.

Liberation’s first beer line up will include the “Figure Eight Pale Ale,” the “Jack Rabbit IPA,” and the “Cyclone Racer DIPA.” Keeping true to LBC, all of their hoppy beers are named after the old roller coasters that were found at The Pike amusement park in Long Beach. They will also be brewing a “Mostly Harmless” Cream Ale, an “Autonomy” Amber Ale, and a “Kompromat” Brown Ale (all three of which are styles that Dan wasn’t initially excited to offer until Eric accepted his hesitance as a challenge and created recipes that Dan couldn’t help but fall in love with). Eventually they plan to add some other fun styles to their tap list like a Milk Stout, an Imperial Stout, and a Saison.

Their current goal is to begin opening to the public in April. To follow the progress of the final touches in the brew house and tap room, and to be the first to hear about the upcoming soft opening dates follow their Instagram: @liberationbrewing. To learn more about Dan and Eric’s beer journeys, you can also follow the Brewmance movie on Instagram: @brewmancemovie.

Extra! Extra! Read some more about it! Another crop of breweries are set to open in Long Beach during 2018! Steady Brew Co. is one such brewery that has taken Long Beach by storm with their first two beers already available in cans. They are currently building their taproom and new brewery location, which will be located on Spring St. and Clark Ave. near the airport.

Steady Brew Co. founders Robert, Dennis, and Aaron realized that they had something good when Dennis, who is an expert home brewer, made a batch of home brewed beer as client gifts for Robert’s fabrication company, Rock Steady (which is where the brewery gets it’s name). Their beer was a huge success and they decided to take that success to the next level. The three began to search for a place to contract brew, originally planning to have their product available only in cans. Although several local breweries wanted to be able to help, Steady Brew wasn’t able to find the right combination of circumstances for contract brewing until the fall of 2017 when they got a generous offer to brew out of Groundswell Brewing in San Diego. The Steady Brew team, being Long Beach local boys, whole heartedly want to have their beer made in Long Beach for Long Beach, so they agreed to accept the offer from Groundswell to get their beer brewing, and began the process of opening their own brewery in order to bring their brewing back to Long Beach.

Both the “Grasshopper” IPA and the “Thirsty Bird” Blonde Ale are available in cans at more than twenty Long Beach liquor stores and bottles shops including Corked at both the Atlantic Ave. and Stearns St. locations, The Bottle Shoppe on 2nd St., Hops & Vines Market on 3rd St., Liquor Land on Long Beach Blvd, and Belmont Heights Liquor on East Broadway. These two beers will continue to be available in cans when their new brewery opens and their taproom will offer a few new brews including the “Pump Jack” American Ale and the “Rocking Horse” Belgian Style Tripel.

Their taproom is opening in “Time Square” along with the Baja Sonora (which will be re-opening in April), the Creative Cakery’s new location (which is currently located on 2nd street and PCH), and there is rumor of a new Ramen restaurant moving in as well, all of which you’ll be able to enjoy in the Steady Brew taproom while you enjoy a freshly brewed beer. Be on the look out for all of these spots to be open by this summer!

Visit their website (steadybrewing.com) for an up-to-date map of bottle shops in Long Beach that offer their Blonde and IPA in cans and follow their Instagram (@steadybrewing) for construction updates and tasting events such as the tasting happening on Friday (3/02/18) at Happy’s Liquor located at Norse Way and N. Lakewood Blvd.

We’re starting to feel a little bit like a broken record, but here comes another new micro – or should we say nano – brewery opening up in Long Beach. Hog Canyon Brewing is about as teeny as it gets and owner Larry Chavez hopes to have the brewery up and running with the taproom open later this summer. The brewery will run on a 1-1/2 barrel system in a small industrial building at 1239 Locust, next to the Long Beach Senior Arts Colony. The name “Hog Canyon” is an homage to the location of the Work Family Guest Ranch, a 12,000-acre family-owned working ranch in Paso Robles, California where Chavez grew up. The tap room will be small, seating about 20 people at a time and Chavez plans to begin serving up some traditional styles, with an emphasis on India Pale Ales, including his 15-45 IPA and a hazy IPA.

With the addition of another new brewery, Trademark Brewing, who recently announced their fall opening just across the way at 233 E. Anaheim (next to the Packard Building), Long Beach’s Washington neighborhood is soon getting an infusion of some serious craft.

Stay tuned for more photos and updates about Hog Canyon Brewing as the build-out continues and date gets closer for opening.

Until we get a chance to go over to the new Liberation Brewing Co ourselves to check the spot out and see what their plans are for it.. Here’s their Press Release… Welcome to the neighborhood!

Liberation Coming to Long Beach

Liberation Brewing Company is a craft brewery coming to the Bixby Knolls/Cal Heights area in Long Beach, CA. Liberation Brewing Company is the brainchild of Dan Regan, former member of renowned local ska band, Reel Big Fish.

Liberation recently signed a lease to open at 3630 Atlantic Avenue, along the Bixby Knolls business corridor. Liberation Brewing will join the burgeoning beer scene in Bixby Knolls/Long Beach as a production brewery, manufacturing many different types of beer to be sold out of the on site tasting room, for take-home in growlers, and to be distributed to local bars and restaurants.

The idea for Liberation Brewing Company was born while Regan spent twenty years touring with Reel Big Fish, visiting breweries throughout the world. After leaving the band in 2013, he decided to put his love for craft beer and homebrewing to good use: “I had been getting free beer for a couple decades backstage at the Reel Big Fish concerts. For the first time in my life, I had to buy it at the store. This would not do. I dusted off the business plan and rallied the comrades to spread the gospel of our unbound libations. LIBERATION!” He partnered with then home brewer Eric McLaughlin, who has since gone on to win various medals for both his home brew and a 2014 World Beer Cup silver medal for Saison Noir, made while he brewed for Ohana Brewing Co. in Los Angeles.

For our 2nd MeetUp, we “met up” at Timeless Pints in Lakewood. Those who showed up early were able to meet the Brewer, Chris, and also receive the Grand Tour of the facility and learn a little about the brewing process. They moved up the release of their newest seasonal beer, Smokey Chocolate and Rye Stout, from Thursday to Wednesday so the group would have a chance to have a pint or two.

The group has doubled since the first MeetUp and we’re excited to meet so many awesome people who also enjoy or are just as interested in craft beer. If you’re interested in joining us for our next adventure, CLICK HERE and join our MeetUp Group!

A huge shout out to Rae @ Timeless Pints for working with us to get the event set up and thanks to the Brewer, Chris, for sticking around longer than he normally would to meet and chat with us!

For anyone living in/around Long Beach/Lakewood and/or if you’re just passing through, definitely stop by, they’re right off the 405!